Moralin – Slaves to the Past
(More Allen)
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To express a few creative ideas I’ve had lately in combination with some standard sci-fi tropes. I’ll personally create a character for the species, and I’d welcome anyone else who found them interesting as well to do the same.
Image Credit: https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/N'Grath
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Links: Telepathy, Parasite
GENERAL INFORMATION
Name: Moralin
Designation: Sentient and Semi-Sapient
Origins: Apollios III (Temperate)
Average Lifespan: 65 – 70 Years
Estimated Population: Inter-Planetary
Description: A young race of intelligent and semi-intelligent insect parasitoids. They possess six-limbs with four serving as legs and two serving as manipulator arms, though they lack the phalanges of other races and thus their dexterity in utilizing tools. Incapable of vocal speech, they rely primarily on intrafamilial telepathy and inter-familial pheromones. Moralin are asexual, lacking any gender, and find themselves bound to the whims of their progenitors – most are incapable of any sort of disobedience.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Breathes: Type I
Average Height of Adults: 1.98 (6’6)
Average Length of Adults: 2.2 (About the length of a white-tailed deer)
Average Weight of Adults: 90 – 110 Kilograms (200-240 pounds)
Skin color: Brown, Green, Transparent (Uncommon), Red (Uncommon)
Hair color: N/A
Distinctions:
- Six-limbed. Four serving as legs spread equidistance along the body and providing a stable method of movement, and two serving as arms.
- No fingers. The end of Moralin arms tapers off into a hook similar to that of a praying mantis. Useful against unarmored organic entities, but incapable of penetrating through metals.
- Arms capable of folding backward onto themselves in order to allow a grip between the forearm and the arm.
- Compound eyes allow for vision at 340’ degrees
- Clear Hemolymph
- Agender and Asexual
- Parasitic cell pouch located within the throat, easily accessed by the mandibles.
- Scent and Pheromone glands interspersed throughout the body.
- Covered in a chitinous exoskeleton that serves as both skin and bone.
- Hearing organs upon both sides of the cheeks indicated by small indentations and rings, but no external growth.
- Sapience is determined solely by the host used by the parasitoid. The use of animals will allow only for the creation of a semi-sapient Moralin, often capable of fulfilling basic orders and tasks, but ultimately lacking in personality and individuality. The use of other sapients, however, will allow for the creation of a fully sapient Moralin.
Races:
Servile – The intelligence and ability to learn possessed by the Moralin is heavily determined by the host from which they are born. Those Moralin who are born from unintelligent animals are themselves bound to existence as mere drones for their superiors. While these Moralin are capable of communicating with their own kind, and of receiving and following basic orders, they are incapable of creative thought or of expressing advanced ideas.
A Servile could be told to push a button, or even a short series of buttons. They could be commanded to fight something or to carry something from one place to another. They can deliver simple messages, or carry more complex messages as couriers. Serviles could not, however, determine battle strategies and only about half are even able to use weapons of any sort.
Serviles are typically used as hard laborers, guards, and servants by their directors. Upon the death of their directors, however, they become a threat. Freed from the compulsions of their master, Serviles will often either continue with the last task they were given, stopping only to fulfill physical requirements like eating and sleeping, or else will revert to a more feral and animalistic state. While not inherently hostile, they may begin assaulting other species with the purpose of infesting them, or they may become territorial and lash out at their kindred.
It is common practice for the intelligent siblings of a deceased director to deal with their Servile brethren. While not capable of controlling them with the same intensity as a director, many siblings are still able to influence and command Serviles simply due to their simple nature and the often-obedient nature of the masterless servants. Those that cannot be corralled are destroyed.
While Serviles are capable of becoming directors, they are universally incapable of successfully directing or guiding fully-sapient Moralin. Nevertheless, these children are still unable to inflict injuries upon their progenitor. Often, a Servile director will merely pass along the orders that it receives from its own director, unable as it is of inventing more complex thoughts.
Force Sensitivity: Low
Strengths:
Secretive Communications – The use of both gene-telepathy and pheromones in order to communicate means that Moralin can often get away with speaking directly in front of someone without needing to worry about being covert or secretive.
Heavyweight – While not the fiercest creatures in the galaxy, the Moralin are nevertheless quite large and weighty. Combined with their natural weapons, they can be a sudden and lethal threat to the unprepared and the unarmed.
Ambidextrous – The right hand does not need to know what the left does in order to function just as well.
Unity of Purpose – Moralin are naturally authoritative, bound to the whims of their director, and capable of accomplishing both great and terrible things for their parent.
Eyes in the Back of Their Heads – The compound eyes of the Moralin allow them to avoid many surprises. Their vision extends to 340’ degrees around their heads.
Weaknesses:
Xenophobic Communication – The lack of natural vocalization means that the Moralin struggle to communicate without technology. Stranded without inventions, they’re forced to commune only through charades and unrecognizable odors.
No Hands – Existing in a galaxy run by beings with opposable thumbs, the Moralin find themselves incapable of utilizing many of the galaxy’s inventions. They struggle too with the use of many tools and items.
Repugnant – Insectoids are inherently alien to mammalian and reptilian species. They are the ‘Other’ that parents warn their children about, the Xeno menace personified... the Moralin are this but to a far greater extreme. They are parasites with a social structure that often oppresses the personal liberty of its members. The very presence of a sapient Moralin is an admission of murder.
Large – Many Moralin are incapable of fitting into the same areas that smaller races are, and subsequently are also less easily able to take cover from enemy fire. A trench works best when one’s head does not peek out of its top.
Obedience unto Death – Subservients are almost universally incapable of resisting the whims of their directors. They will plunge knives into their own chests at the command of a disappointed superior, and there is no recourse for most. Striking their progenitors is almost as impossible as resisting them.
But After Death? - After a director has been slain, their semi-sentient subservients are often without purpose. Some will complete the last tasks given to them over and over and over. Others will revert to an animalistic state and must be either corralled by their wiser siblings or else exterminated.
CULTURE
Diet: Omnivore
Communication: There are two primary and one tertiary method by which the Moralin communicate, though each of these is used only in specific circumstances.
Gene-Telepathy – Each Moralin is possessed of a highly specialized organs connected directly with their brains which allow them to receive and send specific infrared electromagnetic signals to one another. These are invariably very low-level radioactive bursts, and not harmful for nearby entities, though species capable of perceiving this form of radiation may be able to observe communication between Moralin (not the message in itself, but the act – a sort of quasi-lip reading could be performed by a specialist)
While the infrared EM signals do not technically possess a maximum range, there is severe distortion after approximately five miles of separation. These signals could possibly be extended, however, through the use of specialized technology. The two organs are defined as the Familial and the Personal organ respectively. While nearly identical in structure, each is set to detect a different form of burst.
Familial Organs allow for the transfer of selected thoughts and images between a subservient (child) and their director (parent) as well as between siblings who share or shared the same director. A director cannot use this organ to communicate with their children’s children.
Personal Organs begin as nearly vestigial in nature until the Moralin has become a parent entity. At this point, the Personal Organ of the progenitor serves as their means of communicating with their direct offspring. This means that a subservient Moralin will utilize their Familial organ in order to contact their director, but utilize their Personal organ in order to pass information on to their own children.
Pheromone Emission – The second primary method of communication involves the secretion of pheromones from the body of the Moralin. These are thousands of possible combinations of pheromone scents, and while most are undetectable to the general alien populace, they serve as a method for unrelated Moralin to communicate with one another.
As complex thoughts are expressed with additional scents added onto a base, it is possible for particularly vibrant or powerful ideas to be detected by non-Moralin. The fragrance of such scents differs wildly according to those who have been subjected to it, but there is a common consensus among alien races that it is oftentimes acrid and sharp. As these pheromones are external and easily detected, this is technically the means by which most Moralin communicate with alien species, though the use of technology to translate the assorted stenches is required.
In a tragically comedic sense, the presence of several Moralin communing with one another at the same time can occasionally lead to crossed-signals in a similar way as having too many people conversing at once can make it impossible for a human to hear. Given the immense odor produced, most other races would also prefer that multiple Moralin not “gas a place too heavily”.
Mandible Click - A tertiary and highly context-sensitive method of communication involves the clacking together of the mandibles with variable force in order to create soft or loud clicking noises. Due to a lack of a functional vocal system, the Moralin rely upon this communication only when all others are abnormally blocked, or when it is necessary to provide a signal of some form.
For example, a Moralin may click to rapidly draw the attention of peers, or demonstrate an understanding of some difficult subject, to pronounce agreement or disagreement, or any other simple thought. It is important to understand, however, that there is no underlying meaning to any of these clicks. It could be related to snapping one’s fingers or whistling. It can carry meaning, but only in a supplementary sense.
Technology level: Roughly Galactic Standard – The Moralin are a newcomer race, and thus lack many of the fancier and more expensive technological advances of their peers. Nevertheless, they have made an effort to acquire a great number of tools and starships and the knowledge of how to use all of them. Of particular use to the Moralin are devices that supplement their inability to manipulate items as well as species with fingers, and those machines which read their pheromone secretions and convert them into vocalized communication. Many such machines of different makes and models have made their way into the hands of directors in need of technical work or diplomatic meetings.
Religion/Beliefs: As a new race to the galaxy, the Moralin lack a long history of philosophical consideration and religious debate. While there are various cults and orders devoted to the service of deities both self-created and foreign, there is no primary religion among the species as a whole. Though, there are a number of beliefs that are particularly popular among the Moralin.
Force Sensitive Race – Early communications with other members of the galaxy confirmed the existence of powerful beings capable of harnessing unseen powers in order to fulfill a variety of tasks. Among the listed powers of these entities was telepathy. Through a combination of miscommunication and a sort of prideful supremacist ideology, a number of the race have been convinced that they are Force Sensitives. In reality, the Moralin boast fewer true Force Sensitives than a majority of the galaxy’s races.
Offspring Belong to their Parents – The controlling nature of the Moralin directors has caused their race as a whole to understand that the offspring of a lifeform are the property of their progenitor. As such, the Moralin often do not tolerate disrespect or disobedience from children to their blood elders.
The Soul is the Flesh – A belief with a degree of truth involves the reproduction cycle of the Moralin. As sapience is determined by whether a host entity is itself sapient, there are many Moralin who believe that the characteristics of a host directly affects the Moralin which comes from them. While some hold that this is only physical characteristics such as strength and size, others believe that emotional and mental aspects such as predispositions to rage and love also affect the race. If this is the truth, there is not enough evidence for it to be proven.
General behavior:
Family Life:
Family is an important aspect of the lives of the Moralin. After all, it is the easiest way for a director to gain a power base and to execute their goals. As such, progenitors often view their offspring as being valuable resources and are quick to try to keep them in good condition. This often means that education, healthcare, and more are provided for these children.
Especially important are the more intelligent children that a director possesses as these may be used to accomplish both more complex goals, and to command Serviles. While the death of a Servile is an inconvenience that can be rectified by the offending party through compensation, the loss of a sapient child is a tragedy and cause for vengeance.
While the relationships between directors and their subservients are often dictatorial, the relationships between siblings are often far more compassionate. Siblings typically develop friendships and alliances with one another during their service, and these relationships are far less formal. These friendships are emotionally satisfying and fulfill needs of companionship and simultaneously remain politically useful during the aftermath of a director’s death.
Reproduction:
As an asexual race, the Moralin rely on the use of host lifeforms to allow for the development of children and the subsequent variation of genetic material. This process is accomplished by means of a batch of highly-specialized cells held within a pouch in the throat of an adult Moralin. When a Moralin is prepared to infest a host, they will flood their mandibles with the cell pouch, covering it in black ooze.
Upon successful flooding of the mandibles, the Moralin will then bite the host. The bile will subsequently flood into their bloodstream. It also serves the purpose of providing hemostatic properties to the entry wound, often preventing death by blood loss from the traumatic injury. Once inside of the host, the infectious cells will rapidly merge with the host’s own cells, diversifying genetic material in the process. These new cells will then migrate to an area of available space, often either near the stomach or torso, and begin to form a new lifeform.
While infestation by a Moralin will eventually end in fatality, it is not without medical recourse. Strong anti-parasitic drugs and medications will fulfill the purpose of eliminating the hostile cells, and after the fledgling Moralin has begun to develop within the body it is still possible to surgically remove it.
Infestation Time Table:
Bite – 3 Hours – The cells make their way into the body from the point of entry. A portion of the ooze cells are used to patch the entry wound, preventing hemorrhaging, but not otherwise affecting the wound itself.
3 – 4 Hours – The cells bind themselves with the host’s own cells in order to offer variable genetic material for the offspring creature. Migration of cells and growth begins.
3 Days – Growth is now visible on most medical scanners if one knows what to look for. Frequent fevers and upset stomach as the body retaliates against the foreign presence.
5 Days – Immunosuppression is caused by the larva. Fevers dissipate. The patient often believes that they’ve been “cured” or that the “disease” has passed.
1 Week – Occasional cramping within the stomach and the chest as the larva continues to grow. The growth becomes clearly visible to those searching for it. Subtle bloating of the abdomen follows as well as a higher intake of nutrients leading to greater consumption by the host.
1 ½ Weeks – The larva has begun to pattern its neurological development after that of the host. This is the point at which it is determined if the larva will develop into a Servile or an intelligent Moralin.
2 Weeks – Secretion of pheromones and chemical compounds within the body of the host cause irrational behavior, paranoia, and anxiety. Most anti-parasitic medications are too late at this point, and massive overdosing is required for them to be effective.
2 ½ Weeks – Total System Failure – The host’s internal organs begin to collapse; this is often a sudden occurrence without great pain. The host will simply topple to the ground and become deceased.
3 Weeks – Consumption is Complete – The larva finishes with its consumption of valuable nutrients from the body of the deceased and prepares to exit. It bursts free like a chick from an egg, small, but otherwise mostly formed.
Life Cycle:
Larva – Grows within the body of a host creature, circumventing its immune system, and causing a number of negative effects until finally the host has become deceased. It is at this stage that the Moralin’s sapience is determined. It is considered a larva up until it escapes from the body of the host usually around the three-week mark.
Pupae – From birth until about two months afterwards, the Moralin is a pupa. At this stage it is fairly small, usually only about a foot in height and length, and lacking in its gene-telepathy organs. It is cared for by adult Moralin, and its food must be pre-chewed for consumption. It communicates primarily through pheromones, but is childlike and simple.
Adolescent – From two months after birth until six months after, the Moralin is an adolescent. At this point it begins to rapidly grow in size and weight, and its gene-telepathy organs become fully developed. Most Adolescents spend a great deal of time learning and observing the world around them.
Adult – Six months after birth until about fifty-five years. The Moralin is fully grown and capable at this point. It is often a valued member of its familial group, performing tasks and activities for the sake of its director. The Adult is also capable at this point of creating offspring of its own.
Elder – Fifty-five years to Death. The Moralin begins to deteriorate in condition as the effects of age begin to wear down its body. Elders must often become more reliant on their subservient to accomplish tasks.
Directors and Subservients:
Moralin society is indisputably separated into two specific classes. These are directors and subservients. A Moralin may be both director and subservient, as these classes dictate their relationships with one another, but can never be both to another individual.
A Director is a Moralin who possesses offspring. It is capable of directing and commanding these offspring with effectively unwavering loyalty and obedience. It is exceptionally rare for the offspring of a Moralin to be capable of resisting these commands. A Moralin is only ever the director to its offspring, though sibling-Moralin may be able to corral and maintain authority over Serviles.
All Moralin begin life as subservients. These subservients are bound to obey and protect their directors, even at the cost of their lives. While they are bound to obey, they are not impersonal drones and are still capable of forming relationships with one another and with others. A Moralin may be a subservient to their parent, and simultaneously be the director of their own children.
While Serviles are capable of becoming directors, they are universally incapable of successfully directing or guiding fully-sapient Moralin. Nevertheless, these children are still unable to inflict injuries upon their progenitor.
Education:
The Moralin often utilize systems of apprenticeship in order to facilitate learning among their adolescents. While it is typical for basic knowledge to be imparted by a Moralin’s director to provide a foundation for them, it is also fairly common for siblings to be placed in charge of education. Most education is thus limited to the family as Gene-Telepathy allows for a faster and easier system of education than the secretion of pheromones.
As this is not always possible, however, especially for fledgling directors who lack well-educated subservients, there are centers of learning provided by other directors who will agree to teach the offspring of one another in exchange for goods, services, or political favors. It is thus culturally considered to be more elite for one to be taught by their own siblings than for them to be educated by another family as it is indicative of the number of specialists within the bloodline.
Serviles for their part are rarely educated beyond a basic foundation detailing what will often become their primary job. Serviles who show at least some degree of competence when utilizing a weapon are often made into guardians or warriors while those expressing another basic skill are often put into positions where it may be utilized. Those lacking in any specific skills are simply put into place as basic laborers.
Alien Interactions:
As with many races throughout the galaxy, there is not one primary way that the Moralin interact with alien species. Nevertheless, most are somewhat cautious around others as a result of a number of a hate-crimes which have been perpetrated against them throughout history. As they rely upon sapient hosts in order to propagate their species, it is not uncommon for Moralin to be particularly xenophilic in nature, often complimentary and strangely polite all while analyzing the beings around them as prospective hosts.
Diplomatic and economic missions are often made by the Moralin for the sake of their directors, and they will try to adapt their presentations and conversations to a great extent to better suit their alien associates. Moralin are not often swift to initiate violence without purpose, nor are they overly aggressive, but they are adept at sudden and explosive assaults when they are necessary, relying on shock and awe as a race.
In recognition of the threat that they present, Moralin are careful about matters of hospitality and invitation. It is culturally unacceptable for a Moralin to invite an alien into their residence or to promise them safe passage and then to violate these deals. It is not considered culturally incorrect to provide conditional clauses to these matters of safety. For example, a Moralin could invite someone into their home safely under the condition that “They do not speak on matters of X or Y.”
Society:
The society of Moralin is anarchistic in nature. Instead of relying on any form of democracy or imperialist rule, it is instead the nature of the Moralin to submit themselves to the authority of whichever power is strongest at the time. As such, there is rarely dynastic rulership or any sort of electoral system, but instead the simple application of threat and reward from those with the power to perform it.
It is possible for there to be several different “ruling” bodies at any given point among the Moralin, but it is understood that all other living Moralin must submit to at least one of these organizations. Typically, these groups are simply the strongest family current alive, or the most numerous. As such, rulership is granted to a single director. Otherwise, it is possible for several directors to ally themselves together in order to follow an agreed agenda.
For a Moralin not to submit to the authority of a ruler is a threat to that ruler which is often eliminated. Those with the power to resist elimination may form their own ruling bodies, and so the anarchy continues with different bands and groups each with their own ideologies.
Beyond matters of government, the Moralin are also fairly anarchistic in their application of economics. Most decide for themselves whether or not a particular trade is profitable or moral, and then decide to either shun it or pursue it of their own volition. While the assault of competitors is strictly forbidden under most regimes, it is not uncommon for Moralin families to underhandedly attempt to subvert business prospects from one another.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Moralin are a relatively new species to both the galaxy and to sapience as a whole. For millennia they were nothing more than a base parasite. Living within swamps and areas of great detritus and muck upon their homeworld of Apollios III, they operated as mere beasts, occasionally banding together in packs headed by mindless directors and unintelligent subservients.
Were it not for the Four-Hundred Year Darkness, they would have remained forever in this state of animalistic behavior. The spread of the Gulag plague indirectly led to their rebirth, driving refugees to establish fledgling colonies and self-imposed quarantines wherever they could find space. One such band of nomads arrived upon Apollios III in a desperate attempt to avoid the plague, and as such placed themselves within striking distance of the parasites.
It took relatively little time for wandering Moralin to locate these new prey, and their subsequent infection was a matter of instinct. The birth of sapient Moralin was the first step towards a change among the Moralin species.
There were dozens of these Firstborns derived from the colonists. Slowly and surely, they began to gather knowledge about the world around them, began to communicate their findings with one another, and to unionize into a society of their own away from the dull beasts that had birthed them. Language came to them naturally as a result of their gene-telepathy and their pheromone secretions, but the understanding of their world was a gradual process.
Nevertheless, the nature of their race meant that they could effectively bring together large bands of workers under a single cause and achieve rapid advancement. Residences could be constructed in days, streets created in a matter of weeks, and difficult knowledge could be derived from the sacrifice of dull Serviles: did that animal react differently when one held their ground or when one ran, what was the result of mixing this chemical and that one, and how much electricity was needed to power the devices of the colonists?
Even as their society advanced, it faced challenges of power and submission. Laws were imposed by the mightiest among their kindred and resisted by those with the capacity to do so – violent wars were fought between opposing families and their proud directors. Even with these altercations, the race continued to spread across their world. If a director disagreed with the ruling power, they needed only find a new continent upon which to live, and so their race spread.
A mere hundred years before the end of the Darkness, a committee of ruling directors agreed to eliminate their ancient ancestors for the sake of stopping the resource drain that they imposed. The Cull as it was known brought about the death of the animal race which had brought the Moralin into existence, though the presence of Serviles meant that they survived in at least some semblance. A step of “progress”, this mass-extinction is still discussed by more conservative members of Moralin society... in its discussion is an implication that there might be another Cull in order to remove the genetically-weak and incompatible of intelligent society, that their race might continue to grow.
Were it not for the Netherworld event, the species might’ve existed permanently upon their own homeworld fighting for the steadily dwindling resources facilitated by their extremely rapid rise. Instead, the disappearance of a number of prominent directors and the weakening of several powerbases meant that a number of ambitious directors were able to seize power from their entrenched conservative opponents.
Now the Moralin are ruled by a confederation of directors called the Expansionists or “Expans” which have directed the resources of their homeworld to be utilized in spreading to the stars in search of greater resources and prestige for their race. While the ancient technology of the colonists has been used to provide a basis for this expansion, it has steadily been updated by increasing trade deals formed with both planetary governments and independent agents of commerce. Unpopular among many of the races of the galaxy, the Moralin are nevertheless attempting to create footholds for themselves wherever possible and have done so for the past twenty years.
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